Billy Hankins, center, is not discouraged by having to take developmental courses at OTC. / Valerie Mosley/News-Leader

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Sheyann Ward

Sheyann Ward, 19, a May graduate of Marshfield High School, says it was her old bugaboo — difficulty with reading — that landed her in developmental classes at Ozarks Technical Community College.

For Billy Hankins, 33, of Marionville, it was a different route. He had worked a job since age 14. He never graduated high school. It was only this year that he obtained his high school equivalency diploma.

This fall, he is back in school for the first time in 16 years.

Both Ward and Hankins are in the same developmental English class at OTC. Developmental courses teach students basic skills to prepare them for college-level work.

Ward says she was upset when she discovered she would have to take not one, but two, developmental classes. The other is developmental reading.

The courses are not for credit, yet cost the same $111 per credit hour for tuition and fees. Her tuition and fees currently are paid through the A-Plus program.

“I did not want to have to take extra classes,” she said. “It just means I will graduate a little bit later than I am supposed to.”

Nationally, statistics show that a college student’s odds of completing a certificate or degree program diminish with each developmental course taken.

It’s not something Ward likes to admit, but she has struggled with reading since her first days of school. She received extra help at Marshfield High, where she was a B student.

Her career goal is to become an elementary school teacher and, in the end, she said, the developmental courses will make her a better teacher.

Hankins was 11 when his father died. At 14, he went to work in a restaurant while in high school and never envisioned going to college.

“I had a good paying job at the time,” he said. “What did I need college for?”

Over the years, he’s worked as kitchen manager of a steakhouse in Branson and has managed a Pizza Hut in Aurora.

He never took the ACT or SAT tests in high school. So at OTC, he had to take the Compass placement test.

He said he was neither surprised nor discouraged by having to take developmental English this semester and developmental reading next semester.

He returned to college because he wants to own his own restaurant and because he wants to set an example for his three children, ages 5, 8 and 9.

“Here I am killing myself making $12.75 an hour,” he said. “I would rather make $100,000 for myself than help someone else make millions.”

This month he started a better-paying job in telemarketing, he said. He works nights, which frees up days for school. Next semester, he said, he will take 13 credit hours.

College hasn’t been easy, he said. His mother died of cancer this semester.

He pays for his education with a federal Pell grant. Otherwise, he said, he could not afford to go back to school.

“Basically we are living paycheck to paycheck,” he said.

Instructor Jennifer Dunkel says Hankins is similar to many of her students. Most are older, and they have a lot going on in their lives.

“He has all these different things that he is juggling,” she said. “He is going to get through college. I just don’t know how long it is going to take him.”